News of lower than expected jobless claims resulted in a quick pre-market spike then sell-off in SPY today. However, on the open it rallied and proceeded to break through the 95.50 resistance level (peaking at 96.11) in the early afternoon. As the end of the trading session neared, sentiment reversed and SPY sold off hard into the close, finishing at … Read More
Battle on the Open: CRDN
In my quest to help the intraday trader exploit the open better I offer another great setup on the open. Again for those who struggle on the open it is not that this is a difficult time period to master. It is that you are not in the right set ups. I call this one The Battle on the Open. … Read More
JToma talks Banks, SPY, and GS on CNBC’s Fast Money Halftime Report
News today was focused the repayment of TARP funds by 10 of the big banks. This news has been circulating in the market for quite some time and I believe that it was priced into the financials. The TARP trade for most financials is finished! In the broader market it seems that we are continuing to trade in a range. … Read More
Learning to Take Pain
In our training program we (over)emphasize finding opportunities where the risk is one unit and the reward is at least five units. Most of the setups our new traders learn (50% I would guesstimate) are opportunities where the risk is literally one to two pennies. If overly abused, these setups can progressively hinder the ability of the trader to pull … Read More
Afternoon Support Equals Morning Resistance
I would like to share with you another little gem from the world of intraday trading. If a stock shows support at a particular level in the afternoon then the following morning this level will serve as resistance if the stock has gapped down. In our AM Meeting today I highlighted some of the market leaders such as AAPL and … Read More
Trade on the Open: MCD
We teach our desk not to fade weak stocks. But there are plays on the Open that look like the stock is weak. Actually they are not. And these plays are given the green light to fade. We had such a setup in MCD on the Open. Let’s discuss. MCD opened near 58.33, could not hold and traded lower. MCD … Read More
The Week That Was: June 1 – 7, 2009
The SPY traded in a pretty tight range this week, not trading much below 93 or above 95.50. Again, we were looking for that catalyst to push us one way or the other, and I thought we were going to get it Friday morning with the much better than expected non-farm payroll number. We’ll see this week if Friday’s weakness … Read More
Where is the Next 50c Trade?
We are in the office watching tape on this Saturday. We just ended Part I one of our review session. An interesting trading topic emerged: when to forgo a scalp. Let’s discuss. There is this notion that day traders just scalp. Wrong. But there is also this elitist belief that scalping is somehow beneath some traders. Not me. … Read More